Publication 26-CNA-014

Compressive Splitting in Brittle Solids: The Inverse of Wrinkling in Sheets

Maryam Khodadad
Program in Computational Mechanics and
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
mkhodada@andrew.cmu.edu

Francois Barthelat
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Colorado

John D. Clayton
Terminal Effects Division
Army Research Laboratory

George Gazonas
Biology, Materials and Manufacturing Sciences Division
Army Research Laboratory

Kaushik Dayal
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Center for Nonlinear Analysis
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Kaushik.Dayal@cmu.edu

Abstract: Axial splitting is the dominant failure mode of brittle solids under compression, yet its mechanical origin remains unclear. We show that clamped loading platens suppress lateral Poisson expansion, generating boundary-induced tensile stresses at the specimen interior – the compressive analog of wrinkling in stretched sheets. This mechanism provides a predictive strength law, relating axial splitting to tensile strength, geometry, and confinement pressure. This is validated against diverse materials ranging from rocks to ceramics, establishing axial splitting as a geometry-controlled elastic process rather than a stochastic flaw problem.

Get the paper in its entirety as  26-CNA-014.pdf

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